Safari Live - Day 69 | Nat Geo WILD

Well hidden at the moment, tucked away in the long grass, and you can see that one of the little cubs is suckling away. So, these are the four cubs that we saw playing with the game drive blanket not all that long ago, tugging it backwards and forwards and having a grand old time. They belonged to three lionesses known as Gcho, Keeley, and Akeem II, who are all part of Marsh Breakaway Pride, or one of the Marsh Breakaway Prides. Marsh Breakaway Twos, if I'm not mistaken.

They came from the famous Marsh Pride that was famously filmed across in Lucy, our Amash. So, that's where these lions come from. Now we've got the four older cubs. I promise you there are three tiny cubs; they must be hidden away at the moment. They are very, very young, which means that they are not always with the rest of the pride. A lot of the time, they will spend hidden away in their own den site, fast asleep and well behaved because they're too young to know any better, and wait until mom goes to call them.

Now, given where they were this morning and given where they are this afternoon, I would say that the den site is very, very close to where we are now, and I'm hoping that if we show a little bit of patience, even if we don't have the best view now, to get to the den site is going to provide us with a really spectacular view as the lioness gets up and moves back towards them. Hopefully, we will be able to figure out who's who in this particular pride.

In terms of Gcho, she's got very, very bright clear orange eyes. I have learned to recognize her, and I've learned to recognize Kimmy, who's got 330 years, but I'm not sure who fits in where in terms of mothers of the cubs. That is one thing that I'm still trying to figure out because I have never seen the mother of the youngest set of cubs in clear daylight. I know it's not... hold on, I'm relatively certain... no, I'm not. I was about to say that it's not you, sure, but I'm actually not certain of that.

There was a different sighting. I am, in fact, talking utter nonsense, but that's the plan: to wait and see whether or not she goes to fetch the youngest set of cubs. I'm very excited about that. I really wanted to show them to you this morning, and we couldn't because the gremlins were attacking and the ground was getting mushy and mushy.

I've also just watched a little bit earlier on, just watched about three warthogs... we'll pass these lionesses close; they don't even lift their heads. Hey, ladies! They haven't actually been in this area all that long. This would be the first litter of cubs that they've had here in this new part of their territory. I think it is Keaney at the back with the tatty right here; I'm pretty sure it's hard to tell at this angle. I think I'd know if that's... pretty sure that's a... no, there we go, world famous lionesses, probably one of the most famous prides in the world.

Although there are quite a few Marsh prides throughout the world, don't forget questions to hear from you, particularly for new viewers. Please don't be shy to ask questions. Obviously, we've had viewers who have been watching for many years and know as much as there is to know about many of the different animals, so don't forget to send through your questions as well. Don't be shy!

Remember, at the beginning of the show, I said we'd be joined by our crew in South Africa? Well, they are out and about. Let's go and join Tristan and find out what his plans are as he cruises around Juma.

Well indeed, we are in South Africa, and we are ready to go. We've got something that Jamie's lions, I'm sure, are missing dearly at the moment in the form of a wildebeest. Although it's a different species altogether, you can see he's also just having a look over to say hello. As Jamie mentioned as well, my name is Tristan, and on camera today I have got Ferg.

As you may notice, we have stolen James's vehicle, so we have ditched Rusty behind, and we have decided we will take this afternoon and try and see if we can look after it, because I hope James doesn't kill me with all these fancy new toys that's on. Now remember, we are coming to you live and interactive, so hashtags for #Live on Twitter or the YouTube chat, should you want to get hold of us.

Interestingly enough, it's been sitting here watching this wildebeest. They're a funny animal to say the least, but what's been really cool to watch with this particular individual is how he's been marking. So little, you would think, would not be an animal that would mark territory. You would think things like lions and leopards, in the way that they spray and those kinds of things, would be what you expect from an animal, but these guys have a bit of a different way of doing things.

You can see he's kind of got his horn up against the tree, and he's been pushing his face using a little gland that is just below the eye. So if you look just below the eye there, there is a sort of roundish shape going down towards his nose, and that pre-orbital gland is full of scent. What he was doing was rubbing it all over that tree, so he's basically staking his claim that this is my area. The problem is that the wildebeest just to his left, which also is a boy, was doing the exact same thing, and they were both marking over one another, which seems a bit odd. It's amazing to actually see this because it's completely different behavior to what we're seeing from the wildebeest in the Mara.

There we go, he's doing it again now! So, he's got his head up against the tree, and he's busy rubbing and pushing... there we go! You see how he uses the gland underneath the eyes? So he's not rubbing really his horns that much; it's more that he's trying to put that gland all over that tree. Any other wildebeest that's going to come past is going to smell it, and I was saying it's different from the wildebeest in the Mara. The reason why is because all the wildebeest here tend to be not nearly as migratory as what we see from those wildebeest.

These guys tend to set up territories within an area that they feel like there's food and water availability and then try and keep females within that section to dominate, because the amount of females in this area is so much less. Whereas in Kenya, because these massive herds move around and there's so many females, the males can compete when a female comes into estrus; they don't have to set up their territory in quite the same way that these guys have to do.

So, it's very, very cool to see the difference between the species over East Africa and those that are down here in South Africa. But I think what we're going to do is probably leave our wildebeest to be on their own, and I want to try and find the rest of the herd, because there is a brand new little baby that I saw two nights ago that is in amongst the herd, and there were a number of other females that were looking heavily pregnant. So I think that maybe, just maybe, we might find a couple of new ones within the herd itself.

There's nothing better than a couple baby animals, and in particularly wildebeest, because I quite like them. They're much lighter in color and very, very cute, so we're going to try and see if we can find them. Other than that, I think this afternoon we're going to head probably down towards Chipper, see if we can find any signs of our naughty little friend Hossana, who seems to have been on many adventures over the last couple of weeks.

We'll try and see if we can find him somewhere, but while we do that, I believe Noel has found something that maybe Hossana would like to hunt when he's a little bit older. Just in good luck finding Hossana; I hope you do well. You are the leopard whisperer after all!

And indeed, when Hossana gets a little bit older, some of these kudu might be a good size for him. These females might be a tad big, but a big male leopard can take down a small giraffe, so you never know. Good afternoon, everyone! I'm Noel, and on camera, I've got Senzo. Oh, there's the three fingers. Hi, Senzo! I hope everybody's good and enjoying their day or their evening, depending on where they are.

It's turned from a bright and sunny day to a very, very cloudy afternoon here in the Sabi Sands in South Africa. Oh, and now our kudu have disappeared! Our little cuddly kudu, as it were—of course, there they are! Just peeking through the bushes, with their disruptive markings striped beautifully across their body. That white is really sticking out on that one female that we can see there.

Now, the theory behind those stripes is that it's striped that way because predators see in black and white and shades of grey. Vertical striping, as far as I understand. Now, I'm always curious to know how they manage to find these things out. I had an optometrist once as a guest, and she was describing some of how the eye functions, cause we were talking about predators' eyes at night and how they take the light and it reflects back off their retina and then out again.

But as far as the vertical banding goes with the black and white in shades of grey, her and I had a long discussion about it, but she's not quite sure where they found that. So, I'm sure someone very smart discovered it. I don't know if any of you that like to look for papers for us has anything like that; I would love to see a paper on any of those eye issues, but issues isn't the right word; conversations, is it? Well, forget about predators.

Okay, my plan for the day—not quite sure—I'm hoping maybe Tundi starts moving away from her den site. We can, maybe, get a view of her shadow, who's in a little gallery. She was near Treehouse Dam, there, inside a little gallery—not our Treehouse Dam there; Treehouse is a waterhole over there—with her youngster, Tingana. I haven't heard anything about today. The Talamati Pride are up in Biffles Hook; they have killed a buffalo near Hunter's Rest Camp, so we won't be seeing them, unfortunately. They don't usually come this far south either, but I was crossing fingers and holding thumbs ‘cause I haven't seen them in a very long time.

Nothing from the Inkalungas that I've heard, and nothing from the sticks that I've heard, and that male lion is still somewhere south of Chitwa Chitwa, so maybe Tristan gets lucky on his journey over to Chitwa Dam. You never know! So, maybe we'll do a bit of birding; it's not bad weather for a birding; but I'm gonna carry on towards the Milwaukee and see what we can find. Now we have James Henry, who was out and about on his own two feet, so let's head over to him.

Yes, well I'm glad not to have borrowed anyone else's feet out here! Ha-ha! Hilarious Sunday afternoon joke. My name is James Henry. I am indeed on foot walk this afternoon with my friend Ian here. Ian is an Impala, more accurately. Ian is on camera; hello Ian! VM's unusually large thumb, he's been cleaning his ox wagon today, so his nails are a little grubby; don't worry about that!

Now, the reason I picked up Ian, of course, is because I'm going to do a quiz with you. I don't often do quizzes with you, but in order to introduce the hashtag #SafariLive in the Youtube chat stream, I'm going to ask you to tell me what do you think killed this? And how do you know? #SafariLive or on the YouTube chat stream, you can give one word for the animal responsible for the death of this Impala, and you may have three words to tell me why you think it was that animal.

Okay, the way out there is the brain of the Impala, substantially larger than many of the human beings I know. Excellent! So that was an Impala this afternoon. While you think about that rather remarkable quiz I've given you, is the head down into the valley over here? Or is Xander, fairly convinced that the mating leopard pair of an unknown male leopard and the Ingrid Dam female are somewhere around here?

We saw them the other day; it was very exciting indeed, and they have been sought after ever since. There were brief sort of reporting's on the bush telegraph that there was somewhere near the western boundary earlier today. They were not seen here. Xander is convinced that they’re going to go in there, ‘cause cats get very exhausted when they are in love!

Down to Treehouse Dam, where we think they will possibly have a drink, so that's the plan there. The Em is now walking backwards, so if suddenly you find yourself looking at the sky, it's because VM has fallen onto his backside, and she's thankful to keep the camera upright! They make this a bit easier for him and walk mixed him. Okay, so that's the plan today!

Now somebody just saw there's an elephant; there it is! It's quite far away, just across the drainage line. If it could hear me at that distance, I'd be seriously impressed by its ears! Let me just check the wind—yes, still southeast—perfectly playing for us. It looks like a young bull on his own has decided to issue the comforts of home.

Well, another one; come with me from B, if you don't mind! This is a perfect way to view elephants, because they're across the drainage line, which means we don't have to worry about them sort of rushing towards us across open ground. We can get a nice aerial kind of view down, look up, look down on them—this is what Rickson has spotted!

Rickson is on security detail; I thought he was indicating that he'd seen a bird, but his flapping arms... we need this mint; obviously the ears of an elephant, not a vulture! So there they are; there're quite a few! You just go over here—there we go—that's a beautiful view! Should we the termite mound? I think there's a really nice view there; this is just Sunday afternoon. What you'd want to do is sit here in this perfectly designed seat, have a cup of Earl Grey, and perhaps a scone with some cream and strawberry jam, watching elephants!

Now, if they turn on from there, it's quite possible they could see us, and there's some debate as to how good their eyes really are. I think that their eyes are probably just slightly worse than our own—certainly better than some people, but possibly not nearly as good as, say, lions, leopards, oh, and impalas or kudu! They can certainly smell us from there if the wind was to turn, and I'm pretty sure that if I were to start singing the Hallelujah Chorus, they would almost certainly hear that as well!

I'm not going to start singing the Hallelujah Chorus; that would be inappropriate! You can't hear them moving at all; it's just very special, isn’t that gorgeous! Alright, well we'll sit here and see where they go while we do that. I believe that Tim Noel has got a girl, a food for you—little size one!

I think I quite catch James's words there, but I've got a cousin of a cutlery of kudu. We have some nyala, the only cousin of kudu and nyala that we don't get here is a sitatunga. You see the sitatunga— you'll see, sort of, up in the... I can't talk today—in the large swamp that is the Okavango Delta.

We get a nyala; we get kudu! I said before, we technically get Eland—all in the tribe; Laughing A—which means spiral-horned antelope. And then, unfortunately, the sitatunga and the sitatunga is actually something I have not seen yet! I worked up in the Delta for a while, and I visited up out there a few times, but I have yet to see a sitatunga; that is definitely on my list, that is for sure! There's a couple other wet marshes or swamps that you would see them in.

Now, part of this spiral-horned antelope family, what you're going to see there that Senzo is showing so nicely is that track-on-track walking, where they put one foot and then the next foot directly in the same spot to minimize the noise. The other thing you will notice is the striping along the body for some like the nyala, and the kudu... it's very apparent. Oh, in the bushbuck—sorry, we also get bushbuck; that's also in the family! I knew I was missing one! And then also the white under the tail, as well as the very, very large ears!

Now they've moved again into some thickets. Nyalas are interesting; kudu prefer more thick areas. Nyalas will do both, but you tend to see the nyalas closer to water. Bushbuck are much more shy than both nyala and kudu and tend not to be in as such large groups as we're seeing here! What we saw earlier, they tend to be in pairs.

Or like we have in our camp; we have two males who really enjoy camp. They find it safer, and they've been hiding out there a lot since the wild dogs have been around. Then eland will be in all sorts of areas, but also very, very dry areas as well, so they do occur in this area. I've seen them in places like around the Kalahari Basin and there as well—absolutely beautiful! They're the largest antelope species in Sub-Saharan Africa!

Now let's head on up to Brent, who's in the Masai Mara, which is about a thousand six hundred miles away from us—so about double that in kilometers—and see what he has to show us that might be something fun.

Well, welcome back to the Maasai Mara, and we are still with the five male cheetahs—100 percent live, bringing you Africa's wildlife in real time! Now, Noel was chatting about sitatunga and how she would love to see sitatunga. Now, I've been fortunate enough to see a leopard eating a certain gnu as well as a crocodile eating a certain gnu. I grew up in the Okavango Delta said certain gnu is something I've seen a fair few of, and I've also seen different subspecies of gnu in the Congo and Gabon.

Now, the one animal I'm likely to see eating a certain gnu is, of course, a cheetah! It is always possible, especially in areas such as the Chobe and the Okavango, for certain gnu to wander out of the papyrus swamps onto the edge. There are a fair amount of cheetah that could take advantage of there but unlikely.

So here we go—our five boys! Three of them are very well fed; two not so much. At the moment, they're starting to show some signs of movement—few little rollovers and stretches and little shivers as the cold wind blows. It looks like the rain has fortunately left us for now. We've still got the one side of the car down just in case the rain decides to come back, but we will be playing the patience game indeed with the five boys.

They are such prolific hunters, and it would be nice to see them stretch their legs this evening. Remember, if you have any questions for us, #hashtag a safari live; it is the best way to get hold of us on whatever platform you might be watching on.

Oh, Lily, you're so sweet! Lily's Brent, you've made my Christmas! Well, Lily, it's going to be a Christmas week for you because I'm hoping to spend every day with cheetahs from now all the way till Friday, and hopefully, we'll be able to share as many cheetahs with you as possible!

Nellie, now there are quite lazy at the moment, but I said there are few signs that they might be starting to get mobile, so hopefully, they will get mobile in the not-too-distant future! Sorry, guys, we are live; we can't talk right now! We're live, and Megs, can you give me a moment? Can I go to someone else, please? Sorry, I'm just going to send you across to Jamie with lions quickly, and we'll be back in a second!

So, lions are sort of looking a little bit more awake, but I think that might have just been to move to a cooler spot. If I'm not mistaken, snapping at flies— that I think is cheetah! Hard to tell at this distance; I think that's her!

Oh, so irritated! There's obviously a real biting fly problem there, and it's just driving her nuts! Must be so irritating! While she— I don't know why I'm saying it must be so irritating; I know exactly what it's like, and it is irritating! They come and bother us as well at exactly the same time.

Ah, let's see, we have a well-placed vehicle in the background to our shots as well. We'll come on, cats! The rain is coming; the rain is coming soon, but I really, really want to show everybody your brand new, brand new-ish little cubs! Especially because we were there for that traumatic, slightly traumatic heart-rending moment of that tiny cub squealing away, sort of calling repeatedly with its very big voice for a very small thing. When we saw it, it must have been... let me try not to exaggerate now, because it's one of the things that happens to one's memory after... it must have been about that big, I would say.

I mean, it's really for a lion cub; it was really, really small. It could only have been— I think I guessed at the time it was about ten days, or under ten days old. Its ears were still flat to its head, so they hadn't actually peeled away from the skull yet.

We'll lift it up! Kissa? Do lions eat plants? Only very occasionally! So they are obligate carnivores; the vast majority of their diet is meat, and it has to be that way. They do, however, occasionally eat grass, usually when their stomachs are feeling a little bit upset; they've eaten something that disagrees with them! Perhaps they've got a chunk of a hoof or bone that's a little bit too large to break down, and then they will eat grass. And then, shortly after that, most of the time, they will then throw up!

So they are not in any way herbivorous or omnivorous; they are obligate carnivores; they have to eat meat just like dogs and cats have to as well! You might occasionally see a lion chewing on fruit, but it's very unusual! They don't really like it; it's not on their menu at all, and it's not a smell or taste that attracts them!

She's very pretty! And it's funny that you should ask that, actually. In Brent's search for his ostrich nest once again, not so long ago on one of our sunset safaris, we saw a lioness with an ostrich egg in her mouth! She obviously decided that it wasn't worth the trouble because she abandoned it, but yes, predators will eat ostrich eggs!

And they—something like a hyena can break it open; so can a lion! Honey badgers also really, really like ostrich eggs if they can find them. So yes, predators will eat ostrich eggs. You can imagine just how nutritious an ostrich egg would be because it's got the fledgling... you wouldn't really call it a fledgling, actually; it's got the embryo and the egg sac on the yolk to feed the embryo, so it's really quite a double meal in one! An ostrich egg is so massive that it really is for a lion not hugely... okay, you know, it's not a filling meal, but it's certainly a pleasant one!

Absolutely, lions will eat ostrich eggs; so will honey badgers, hyenas, leopards... cheetahs might have a hard time breaking open an ostrich egg, bearing in mind that an adult human— or maybe not an adult human being— but when I was around a kid of around about... I don't know how heavy I was. 30? 35 kilograms at the time? I could stand on an ostrich egg without breaking it, so it's a very tough egg!

Copy how much these guys have grown! Either they were so sweet when they were playing with that blanket! So the fun story of the Marsh Breakaway Pride is that Keaney, who is one of the younger females—the youngest actually in this group—Keaney apparently was the daughter of Lippy. Now Lippy died recently; Lippy was quite a famous lioness.

Sorry, was she looking at buffalo, or is this something smaller? She’s definitely looking at something! Warthogs! She's looking at warthogs running around! Can you see them there? Joey, right over the straight over the top of my head and running towards us potentially! The lioness is now up; she's moving towards them as well!

Can you see them there? There we go, two little piggies! She's got quite a distance to cover. I think it’s the same two little piggies I drove past and asked them where their mothers were earlier on today. I don't think I was live at the time, but I did drive past two little piglets and wondered that they were so far away from mum!

Actually, that was the end part of the story of Keaney; actually, was the fact that she eventually became separated from her mum at about three months old and was returned to her by the Wildlife Services!

Okay— to settle down again! It remains to be seen. Generally speaking, in these situations, the piglets are the ones that actually make the mistake and can go running towards the lion! So while we wait to see how this plays out, let's head back over the river to Brent to see if the rain has let up!

Well, the rain has let up; there's a tiny bit of light seeping through huge storms to the south of us and bathing the currently lazy five boys! But I'm hoping that our boys are going to get moving! They are getting to the crepuscular hour where these boys are very fond of taking down topi, Hartebeest, and wildebeest!

That said, three of them are very well fed—two not so much. Now, Deidre is wondering, will cheetahs climb a tree? Now, very simply, tree-climbing lions today; so yes, they will! A male cheetah in particular, they do climb trees; they like to scent mark up trees. However, not nearly as agile as a leopard, but there are more agile than lions when it comes to climbing trees!

But they generally prefer trees that are quite easy to climb, so they don't take on vertical trunks too often! But they will climb a tree if the mood takes them, and quite often, cheetah like to defecate quite up high and scent mark up in trees! So yes, they will climb trees, but again not nearly to the same effectiveness as a leopard!

You in last at the moment—that's called down! They've moved under the shade of the small Croton bushes, and I'm just sort of lying in the breeze at the moment. I'm guessing from here they're gonna head towards the east, which is their general route from here! Richard is wondering how did the cheetah learn how to hunt? Again, now that's a very interesting question, Richard!

Cheetah mothers will let their cubs—especially with baby antelope—sort of play with them and make the kill. But no big cat in Africa actually needs to learn how to hunt! It is a great misconception that human beings have—that they think they need to teach a big cat how to hunt! It would be like teaching any mammal how to breed!

It is an instinctive, inbred thing that every single animal knows how to hunt as it knows how to breathe! So it is a very human thing, and a lot of humans like to do these little things where they're going to take a big cat and teach it how to hunt so it can be wild, which is an absolute farce! If a big cat gets hungry enough, it knows how to hunt! Those instincts are there; they've been there for hundreds of thousands of years!

They don't need to be taught anything! And, as I said, it would be the same as trying to teach us how to breathe! It is a complete fallacy that you need to teach a cat how to hunt! Even your domestic cat, without any teaching or training, its instinct will take over, and it knows exactly how to hunt!

At the moment, they are not too interested in hunting; they look far more interested in having a sneeze! But that's why we sit with the big cats and play the patience game! Because those momentary bursts of energy are absolutely incredible to behold! I couldn't think of too many worse ways to spend a Sunday afternoon than in the company of five male cheetah—even if they're relaxing! It's quite a relaxing time to be searching them now!

Someone hasn't quite learned the art of relaxation and is always quite a busybody—it's my good friend James Henry! Let's see what he is busying at the moment!

I have perfected the art of relaxation, as you can see! I'm very relaxed in front of a lion's eye, which I showed you this morning and will probably show you every day that I'm on footwalk, because there are many of them around! There it is, the same color as my eyes! Not the same color as most lions' eyes!

So, why it should be this orange color and so be named—well, who can look into the mind of the botanical taxidermist! Then, over here we have got a little termite mound! Now, it's not an impressive termite mound in that it's about the same size as my hand! But if you look very carefully, you can see little termites emerging and going back inside and emerging and going back inside!

On this cool day, they're probably nocturnal! And there will be a different form of termite from the big Macrotermes that make the big mounds! I'm not sure exactly which ones these are, and I'm speaking quietly like this not necessarily because I think they're going to hear me and run away! But simply because those elephants are not too far away!

We also have a betel... fairmont; VM just hit me in the face with the aerial there! Yeah, here's a better one! There's an ant beastly ant—beastly beastly ant has murdered this termite and taken it away! Look! Foul, foul fellow!

Here's another one; isn’t that awful? Ah, now Julia, you make a very good point; oh, question—you said do anteaters eat only ants or termites? I'm not sure about the scaly anteater—of the anteaters of South America, for example—but at an art park, for example, which is thought of as largely a termite eater, will in fact eat ants mostly during the summertime and during the winter eat termites.

So they will absolutely eat both, and the same goes for something like a pangolin, which has a long sticky tongue to dig into the ant's nest! Here, look, here's more brutality going on here! Oh, these things are being carted off! Then another predator has come onto the scene—a little wolf spider!

It's gone, unless it's hunting me! It was a little wolf spider! Here he is; he's just over there! See him? I think he's a wolf spider, and I think you'll find he grabs a whole lot of termites and ants! He will hunt the hunters and the hunted—an uber predator at the micro level! Killer!

Now, I believe we have some answers to my almost impossible quiz that I gave you! Do we have those answers, Rick? And Mama, you both said that a hyena killed that Impala because they only eat bone! And, sure, Mama, you say they crushed the skull to get to the brain!

I think it could well have been taken, eventually, by a hyena, but I suspect that that was killed by lions! Lions will eat away the entire face and leave the horns and that little piece of skull! Possibly killed by a leopard or a cheetah, perhaps—and then a hyena would have taken it away! So, Andrea, you say lions because they would've eaten the whole skull! I would have gone with lions for that, but I might be wrong; it could easily have been something smaller that was then taken by the scavenging hyenas!

Thank you for playing my Sunday afternoon game! It was very nice of you to do that! Okay, let's move on from this battle royale going on here! It's Sunday! Take a rest! Leave them alone! I'm just talking to the ants; they're not beautiful!

Now, I'm going to get around this way, VM; you can go around that way if you want! Make things easier for you! What are we looking for? Of course, it's checks of this mating pair! We haven't actually managed to come across them yet! We've covered some distance, and VM said, do you think we could slow down slightly? Not because he was tired, but because he thought perhaps that we were going to cover the whole property before the drive ended!

Well, while we do cover the whole property, Jamie has got a wildebeest— not alive! That is in the mouth of something that's a... it is long dead! My mum told me that there were loads of these animals all around, but she says I'm only going to see them again when I'm much, much older! Our cubs found itself a toy—a remnant of the migration! The migration that this little one is too young to remember! You would have been alive for it, but it would have most definitely not really registered in this little cub's mind!

Now that it's left with the remnants in the form of a chew toy—a much contested toy, I have to say! As the second cub comes chasing after it, storms are rolling in, the sun's coming out between patches of dark! As you go, look how proud you are of yourself; mouth full of wildebeest! Torn? Yeah, you've got a year to go, just under a year to go, seven months! Mr. Parker, you say that it is just too cute!

It is, isn't it? I'm going to have to reposition in a moment for Joey, so Joe, you just let me know when you're at the point of no return, and I'll shuffle around, possibly with us blowing away in this gale! If you lived in the golden grass—actually, almost reddish grass, reddish and green, crystal at... oh goodness! Tonight she cried! It's prickly!

Angle around! Is anyone behind me? One down there! Depression to a car if I don't remember to keep checking! Here we go! You were wondering very far away; look! One vicious and delicious! Says look at that strut! I know it couldn't be more pleased with itself if it tried! Of course, it also helps that it doesn't want to drag it on the ground!

Come on! I think what we've got is a young male on the right and a young female on the left; his sister! She wants to go and challenge him, but at this point, it's not quite brave enough! For now, we get very far away from mum! I'm just gonna, I'm sorry to do this to you again! Oh, there we go, we got the pants!

I'm really sorry to do this to you! I'm gonna have to move! Hold on, he's gonna go round me! Very kind of him! Thank you! Suba! Hehehe! Atul, do I ever feel like getting off my vehicle and hugging cute animals like this one? No, I can't say that that desire ever strikes me with wild animals!

But I do with elephants occasionally have the strange desire to want to just go and rest my hand up against their heads! But it was something that I understand would be so innately disrespectful! Quite apart from the fact that I'd either be chasing the animal away or possibly getting myself flattened, which would be the most likely response!

I am so very aware of the fact that they are completely wild, and that's half the joy of these animals! Whenever I see pictures of people cuddling lion cubs, it makes my stomach turn! Not just because those lion cubs are fated to a life of canned hunting— no matter what the shelter says, no matter what the play says that they are happily released into the wild, it's nonsense!

No animal that has been touched by humans— wild animals can be, in a sense, released back into the wild. No lion, no elephant, not in a way that can be safely done without the risk of injury to that animal or to human life! So all of the lion cubs that get their pictures taken will all ultimately have a very sad fate!

But beyond that, I just don't like seeing wild animals with people! Obviously, but no! Oddly enough, I'm happy being able to cuddle dogs and cats! I don't want to go and cuddle lions! Alright, we're going to send you across to James, speaking about being on foot with the animals. Let's go and find out whether he's got any desire to go and cuddle the ones he's walking around! No!

Now cuddle this, and it will be a very unpleasant experience indeed. Now these are some of the soldiers of which I was talking, although they belong to different species of termite. This is the Macrotermes, the big fungus growing and mound building termite, and that is a major soldier! You get smaller ones called surprisingly minor soldiers, and then you get major workers and minor workers, which are just different sizes!

These chaps have been guarding one of these holes here, and it is my firm belief that this hole you see—its curved nature— I think that is a hole that has been dug specifically for termite alates to emerge. In other words, I probably... yeah, probably not today! I'm not sure that it's warm enough, but after the rain, when the soil is soft, the alates, or flying termites, come to these little emergence holes, and they have a guard of honor around them formed by those big soldier termites.

Off they go! And it's always, I keep saying this, but maybe there are one or two new viewers who haven't heard it before, but it's my favorite part of the termites' lifecycle. It's like this enormous celebration of the whole purpose behind the work that goes on in this termite mound!

The countless hours, countless numbers of eggs—some 25,000 of them a day—are laid sometimes by the really big queens! Whoops, we understand! He fell on his bottom! And it's all for this time when the termite alates come out of these holes, and they're gonna fly off in those enormous clouds of gossamer wings, often at sunset when the flight is the most beautiful!

Then they find each other—they find a male or a female, depending if they're a male or female, and they try and start a new mound! Of course, it's also covered in a sense of tragedy because, well, probably 95 to 99 percent of them will never mate! They'll never manage to meet a mate, and even those that do and manage to get themselves that far under the ground will often not survive to create an amazing mound like this because they'll be eaten!

They're such a rich food source, so quite the celebratory, we make a natural event, but one tinged with a little bit of sadness at the same time! Goodbye termites; may you have a wonderful afternoon! We are going to carry on doing that.

Just before we leave, these fellows, you know how long it takes for them to build these mounds? Julia, it's difficult to say, and it's not difficult to say simply because I'm ignorant! It's difficult, so I don't think that a mound this size has been continuously occupied by only one colony!

It's an enormous mound, but it's my guess that this termite mound is probably around a... but let's say 50 years, 50 to 100 years or so. I have seen sort of a half sour mound, about half—well, about half of— no, not half! I'm gonna say about one-tenth of this much soil deposited over the course of a year, so I think that there's probably about 50 years, not 10 years!

And the reason I say that, of course, is because there's a huge amount of erosion that happens in the rain! So although yes, they can certainly make a certain amount per year, a lot of that will get washed away during the rain! Now, I'm very excited to tell you that this afternoon is Tristan, who've met and he's now got the mobile microscope working!

He'd like to show you—Sunday beetle! Indeed, James, we do have the mobile microscope working, and it is the most insane thing in the world! I'm absolutely loving playing around with it; I feel like a little kid on Christmas! I suppose it's apt for this time of the year!

And as James mentioned, we do have a little beetle now! This little beetle, I have actually never ever, ever in my life seen before! It is a tiny little dung beetle that we have. So it is small, and it's got little, kind of yellow and black markings on it. You can see it's covered in sand at the moment. This poor little beetle has been burrowing through the road, and we spotted it coming off a bit of elephant dung!

That's also why it's a bit sticky with... and the sand is all sticking to it because it's been in the moist elephant dung for a while! It's amazing to watch it, because it goes burrowing through the sand at times! Now, it's just sitting here ever so quietly, of course it hasn't been doing this the whole time we've been with it! It's been all over the place!

I feel like I've moved this microscope about 20 times to try and keep it in frame! Now it's sitting fairly patiently, so that you can all see it! It almost doesn't look alive at this stage, but I can assure you it is very much alive! And English can show you that it is very fast!

Now, I'm sorry I've just bumped the microscope slightly, which is not ideal! I was hoping that he was going to burrow around and you would be able to see that head action work, because it is absolutely unbelievable to see how small it is! I'm going to try and take the microscope away and just give it a little pick up so that you can see just how tiny this little beetle is!

Well, you little beetle! There we go! I'm going to put it on my hand! You can see he's going to move quite fast! Well, no, beetle, don't go! It's now gone back onto the road. Maybe we can actually get a better view of it! I'll try on the microscope one more time.

There we go! It might be digging down now! That's much better! We can actually see it digging which is very, very cool! So, it's now going into the sand! You can see how it uses that shovel-like head to dig its way underneath the soil and to be able to hide away from a predator! So it's been very clever in its way of doing things!

This, of course, is also how it's going to emerge! When it was a little beetle, and it's going to start feeding and how it's going to be able to lay its larvae, if it is that type of dung beetle that does lay larvae! You can see the particles of the road there, which is little sand particles, and how small that little beetle is in comparison! It is absolutely fascinating! I'm thoroughly enjoying playing with this microscope!

I think I'm going to try and see what other things I can find! And talking about microscopic beetles and small beetles, Noel has found a little carnivore that I'm sure would love to eat one of these little guys! So we do dwarf mongooses a lot on the show because we amazingly see them quite a lot! That Senzo is right next to this termite mound where this little dwarf mongoose is smelling us and looking around! We're getting the most amazing visual as you all can see!

I mean, it's right next to the car! Sounds, I don't know if you want to zoom out a little bit just so everyone can see! I mean literally, right here! Just sunning! I've been talking in whispers and sitting very still and moving very slowly so that he'll pop his head out just like you saw now! Now the rest of this business of mongoose is around in the bushes!

There's another one; you see just here at about two o'clock, Senzo! I'll read my mind, my friend! There's a few more out foraging, looking for insects—possibly beetles like the one Tristan was showing you through the microscope! And if you move slowly around them and then sit sort of quietly, they will just carry on their business and will find you quite interesting!

Sometimes, when you're this close, you can really hear their communications; it's such tiny little chirp—tiny little chirpy noises that they do! Now, one of my favorite sightings of this year was actually with Senzo, sands! When was it? About a month ago? Five weeks ago? Something like that! When we had dwarf mongooses that were chasing a black mamba around! It was pretty amazing!

So, for me, dwarf mongooses are kind of like the wild dogs of the small mammal community because they move so quickly and have such severe ADD that anything can happen at any moment! Now, it seems as if everybody has meandered off into spots where we can't see them!

There's one now, and we're not getting any of the noises that I'd like to hear, and our one that's right next to the car has decided not to poke pop out his head again! Those ones are playing over there!

Paula, that's a really interesting question—Senzo, can we come back to these holes here? So Paulo, where they're living are inside of a termite mound, and those holes that you're seeing are not burrows that they've made! It's actually collapsed chimneys from inside the termite mounds!

That termite mound is still active, like the one that James was showing you! Every mound is a little bit different! And then they live inside of these opened-up chimneys as well as things like monitor lizards and snakes; certain types of birds will also live in there! And then we've seen larger cavities that are dug out by things like hyenas or similar to Tundi's den!

So those chimneys actually go down quite far to the termite mound! It can be several yards; it could be tens of yards! It just depends on where the water table is! But the mongooses don't necessarily go all the way down to where the water table is! Now, inside those chimneys, it wouldn't surprise me if there's little nooks and crannies that they've sort of dug out a little bit with their claws too to live inside of, but those initial ones, it's not—they're not making!

It's very, very interesting! Alright, so we've been tracking elephants! We've been tracking a huge herd of elephants for about three kilometers now! And unfortunately, these elephants have gone south into Little Gallery, so I think what we're gonna do is we're gonna go lurk along the boundary and see if Shadow wants to pop up, or possibly if the wild dogs want to pop up! That's our plan for from here!

So while we are busy looking for any rosetta creatures or painted wolves, let's head on up to the Masai Mara where Jamie has one of the three big cats that we have without lions. Not all that much it distracted into the void!

I can see them! I can't see them, and they are making their way back! So make me just shift out of the way! Well, Joey and I are eyeing out the weather, and it's not looking positive! No matter which direction we look in, it appears as though it's their car behind me!

Wonderful! Just mud! Little cubs are going to come into view shortly! In fact, you should be able to see them! I want to go further back to the mush! There's one!

Oh Nadia, you want to know if a lion will have a single mate throughout their lives? And the answer to that is no, absolutely not! They will have multiple males that they made with, or multiple females, depending on what we're talking about! These little cubs make their way back toward their mothers! A lioness will—essentially, the way that lion dynamics work!

A male coalition has territory, and that territory encompasses the territory of several different prides and therefore several different lionesses! They'll mate those lionesses for around about two to three years before they are all stood by another group of young males. Obviously, this is a general rule! They will then move on, possibly to a new territory, and the new males will start mating with those females! And the old males will start mating with other females! So no, there is no monogamy within a lion pride or coalition!

The females will mate with as many males as they possibly can within their estros cycle, so first of all, it's just naturally instinctive for them, and secondly, it helps to large—doesn't eliminate the risk, but it helps to eliminate the risk of the cubs being killed by a male because males will kill cubs that do not belong to them or their coalition mate because it will bring the female back into estros faster and allow them to mate with her and therefore sire their own cubs rather than the cubs of another male!

Methyl, naughty things going wandering into the dangerous big wide world! Luckily you've got one large mother and two big aunties to keep you safe! I was telling you the story of a keaney—not a guinea, sorry! Kimmy, she disappeared away from her mum at around about this age, possibly even a little bit younger! And she was gone for nine days before reuniting with mum and her two brothers!

Lappies now no longer with us! But Keaney, her daughters, stalking through the grass, you need to go and pounce on a sibling! There are some very ominous rumblings of thunder here! Vicious and delicious, with the storm coming!

No, never! It never snows here in my tail! Infected has hailed—very small hailstones! Oh, pants! Very gentle pants there! It might hail very small hailstones, but that's about as icy as it gets here!

Bear in mind we are very close to the equator, and although we are high in altitude, we're not that high! Oh, here comes the other cub! I imagine hence the reason for the crouch! Assume the stalk position completely flat in the grass now! Oh, lion cub number two is distracted! It's veered off in a different direction!

Here we go! Get him! I love lion cubs at this age! They are just so unbelievably playful! It's so sweet! I miss watching leopard cubs do this as well! It's one thing that we haven't managed to really find in the Mara! We know are they are; we know where the relaxed females are with cubs, but a lot of the time they're in very bad signal areas!

Was that a drop of rain? No, no, Joe! It wasn't! Just pretend! It's not! If we pretend it's not happening, then it's not happening! Right, okay, we're in all the clouds and the giant storm that is engulfing the escarpment and racing towards us at the speed of... well, clouds!

Oh goodness! Okay, well, Joe and I contemplate our fate; off you go to James, who's having a fun Dicer time enjoying looking at the flowers?

I am definitely having a far nicer time enjoying the flowers! And to my mind, the assertion that there's a long rain and a short rain season in Kenya is a rubbish! It rains all the time there! In fact, it probably rains more there than it does in England, which of course is impossible!

Now, what we have here is the beautiful yellow flowers—the blooms of Peltophorum africana! More the weeping wattle! And I was hoping to find a fruit chaffer or two, which are little beetles! Often very prettily colored! But I haven't found any fruit chaffers here!

But what we have found are some drop-tailed ants! Now, if you were on a walk with us this morning, which of course you should have been for your morning exercise on Sunday, you would have known— or you would have seen, we talked about the drop-tailed dens!

Then there we have one, and what this drop-tailed ant is doing? I still don't know! I think perhaps it's looking for a fight! Also, be looking for little bits of plant eggs! You date, or what we did find this morning was a little frog hopper or spittle bug!

This is interesting actually! We found a spittle bug being tended to by these ants! And what's very interesting is that this plant, the weeping wattle, is called the weeping wattle because of the fact that it gets spittle bugs on it! So I wonder if that's not what this ant is looking for! I don't see any spittle bugs!

In fact, the one that I found today, but possibly one of the only ones I've ever seen! One would also expect to find crab spiders on a tree like this, little spiders disguised like the flowers that are sitting here, and to some other kind of creature come across them, and then they will devour it for their Sunday roast dinner!

Let's have a look here! We need the eye-differently huntable in order to find this sort of thing! Ah, now, Kaelin! You're asking about a species of arachnid! We're not a species; our family of arachnids called the red Romans or sun spiders, or more particularly the Solifugae's, and we do get them here! Absolutely!

They are, to most arachnobias, refined creatures in the world! They run at an astonishing speed! They've got these vicious, kind of, scissor-like tooth drawers at the front of their faces that kind of slide over each other like this! And the kind of things you really don't want—wouldn't want to get caught in!

Totally harmless to human beings, but they do look vicious, especially when you look at them under a microscope! And I had one outside my room the other day; it was a little fellow like that, and he ran around at a speed that defied belief!

Would be like you and I being able to run at around about 60 miles an hour to 100 kilometers an hour—really was just amazing! So yes, we do get them here! I'm afraid I can't find you one in this sort of weather! I don't think, but if we get very lucky, then I felt that it's Tommy! You've wanted to know if the word bitlee is the correct way to pronounce beetle!

No, it's not! It is a jerk! I'll tell you where the jerk comes from—the word L-E has no equivalent in Shangaan out here! And so often words that end in "le" are said by local people as they're spelt, so they're said bitlee or literally!

And you can imagine some of the conversations that people have! And the giggles they have with each other when you know words like that are pronounced! It's always quite worth it; it's often quite funny when people mispronounce each other's languages, and bitlee is just a very kind of I think a hugely endearing term for a beetle!

So that's why I use it immediately! Anyway, that's what it comes from! And then James, you're wondering which species of insect has a symbiotic relationship with the fungus?

I don't try to think if I know of an insect that has a symbiotic relationship with the fungus! Well, I mean, the termites do! Those fungus-growing termites have a symbiotic relationship; the fungus would not grow! It's a very specific species of fungus that wouldn't grow in the absence of the termites.

The termites are able to create the correct conditions, the right amount of moisture, the right temperature for the fungus to grow in, and without them, it wouldn't exist! They've co-evolved together to live with each other—completely dependent on each other!

So they are symbiotic for the termites! They, of course, get nourishment from the fungus, which helps them to digest the cellulose and lignin and other structural material in the plants that the termites are unable to digest themselves! So that would be a good example of one!

I feel like James— you were asking perhaps for something slightly less obvious than that, and I can't think of... I mean, there are lots of ants that have that kind of relationship, but it's the same sort of relationship if you have one that you can think of! I would be very, very pleased to try and understand it or go and research it!

But yeah, that's the only one that comes to mind! Alright, now let me see what else I can find! There's a lack of signal, and obviously, an enormous storm in the Maasai Mara, so you're going to have to stick with me for a little while!

Let's have a look in here! Now, I suspect quite strongly that something fairly large has spent a substantial amount of time in here, possibly a warthog! Anyway, I'm going to have a bit of a rest here and see what I can see, and while I do that, you're going to go for a little drive with Noel.

Hello James! I'm so sorry that you've gotten so old that you need to rest after an hour and a half and got a tear for you! Anyway, so it's a really interesting question, one of the insects that have a symbiotic relationship with fungi! James, honestly, myself as well—I can only think of the termites!

But it's tickling my file 13 when it's saying that, so I'm assuming it's also ticking your file 13, which is why you're passing the question on forward! I'm trying to think of—yeah, I mean insects unless we count things like lobster and prawns as insects and then eating sort of fungal-like plant matter in oceans! I guess we could go with that train of thought!

But yeah, I can't honestly such an interesting question; I can't honestly think of it! And I'm sure we both have friends at home that are sitting there and yelling, "Oh! What about this?" and neither of us is thinking of it! It will come!

Alright, so my search for Tundi—yeah, and I picked up any other leopard tracks! I got really excited because there were some vultures earlier, but I think they're just resting because of the cold, eating at the ground, and we're also coming towards evening, so that could be a reason!

So, I'm patrolling our eastern boundary just to see if the wild dogs want to come back through Torchwood, which is on our right-hand side, and it doesn't seem as if they have yet! But as you know, they move here and they move there, and they zig and they zag, so we might just get lucky!

And other than that, yes, it's been a good afternoon, but it's been relatively quiet, especially after all the excitement! We've been having—well, I know Senzo and I have—poor Wendy here then had some serious bundu-bashing over the past couple of drives and had some amazing times with the wild dogs, and look! I'll, you know, I'll take out my own eye teeth just to see wild dogs! They're my absolute favorite! I dig them!

And I'm trying to think! Oh, elephants! There's been loads of elephants, especially this morning! It feels as if everything sort of maze—we get everything, and some days it's a little bit girly!

Julia, have I ever been on the drive where I have not seen any animals? Well, Julia, there's always birds! Birds are always around! No! I've never been on a drive where we haven't seen anything! I've been on drives where I haven't seen any of the big five, but I've never been on a drive where I haven't seen any birds and/or other wildlife species!

No, but it depends, Julia, on where you work! A lot of the places I work have very high population densities of multiple different species of bush wildlife! One of the reserves I used to work at was amazing for its complexity of antelope species!

So even if you didn't see any of the big five or magnificent seven on a drive, you would probably see about 10 different species of antelope as well as zebra and things like that! And birds are always around! We've just... a lot of the birds that I've personally been seeing today are birds that we do very often, and I'm looking for ones that we don't see as often to show you!

So I think let's head on over to Tristan! Maybe he'll find the painted snipe for us! I did get a quick glimpse of the painted snipe near Chitwa dam yesterday! And let's see what he has to show us! It would be nice to find the painted snipe! It's been a while since I've seen when the last time I saw one was at Twin Dams a few months ago, so be good to see one again! But I don't think so, just yet!

I've just arrived at Chitwa dam! We literally have just come up onto the dam! Also, I'm still surveying around to see what there is! It seems quite quiet, though, with regards to hippos and various other things! It seems as though most of them are under the water at this stage!

The weather has turned a little bit foul! It's gotten quite overcast and rather windy and cold, and so not great weather for a number of our animals to be frolicking about and showing themselves! So every now and then, I've just seen these nostrils from a hippo kind of poking up out of the water!

I wonder if our little baby crocs are around! It's been so long since I've been in this area that I haven't seen the baby crocs for quite some time now! There are some kudu there! You can see they're actually inside the lodge—very clever kudu going in!

On the other side of the fence that will make sure that you're a little bit safer from various other things! And they will go in there all because they're really going to go and feed off all the vegetation that's in there! At the end of the day, a lot of the lodgers have lots of plants that they water and tends to be flowering delicious food items for them!

And so you'll find that they'll go inside there to go and feed! It's also tends to be a little safer! You'll find that the predators—even though they do move around the lodges—and we know that Hossana and Tamba seems to think that Chitwa belongs to them these days! They both go and lounge around on the bix while the guests have dinner!

But typically it's a little bit safer! But what's interesting is those far left kudu; they are all kind of staring with their ears! Maybe it's because there is another kudu that has just moved into frame! You can see there's another kudu that's just arrived, so that's maybe why they were just looking at that one coming along!

No, it seems to be a few bushbuck and nyala floating around within the lodge as well! Then maybe let's go forward a little bit, Fig! And let's see if our baby hippos don't want to pop up!

It seems from what I've been talking to Ferg about is that there's only one little property, Sene. So hopefully, the other three are still around! Lorena, you want to know what is on the front of our vehicle!

Well, this is firstly, I think the best way to start this is that this is James's vehicle, and I'm just borrowing it for the day! And what is on the front of the vehicle is what James deems to be his insignia for which is a waterbuck skull!

Now I will get it out! Now we'll try to sort of secure and wedge it from the front of the car, even though Wallace is a picnic kingfisher! So you see just on the edge, they folk right on the edge of the water! Just off the top!

There we go! There it is! Just on the right! Is it a pygmy or is it a malachite? So it's a malachite kingfisher, so I thought it was a pygmy at first! Because these guys in ages! So that's super cool to see! They are incredibly beautiful little birds!

You can see that bright red beak, little white section on the collar, and then that sort of iridescent blue-purple coloration or for the back! And so one of the things about being at Chitwa dam is that you never know what you're going to find! And that is an absolutely welcome surprise to our afternoon here!

So now that we've got our little kingfisher that is flowing away, I might as well see if I can try and get these horns out for you! So I can show you what these actually are, because at the end of the day, this is James's idea of decoration!

And so you've got a massive set of waterbuck horns! Now these waterbuck horns, as you can see, are fairly large! This particular waterbuck is a waterbuck I recovered after the Inkuhuma pride was the ones that actually killed this!

It was a waterbuck that was killed close to the boundary with Arethusa! You can see there is a little bit of sort of blood and bits on it still! It was killed, I think, if I remember correctly, it must have been about November last year! Didn't ever miss a symbol somewhere!

And there was where it was killed! And so we decided we would pick it up! And I know that James has been doing all kinds of interesting things with this waterbuck skull! It is an incredible set of horns; this is a really large waterbuck that you've got!

And what's amazing is that you can tell a lot about the horn structure of this annum! Firstly, if you have a look at it, it's got lots of these ridges running all the way up! Now, this is typical of any of the antelope species that fight for dominance!

So when they're fighting for dominance, at the end of the day, if they had smooth horns like the top, there's very little resistance! And so what you would find is that, as they clash horns, the horns would slip, and you would get up a situation where they then stab each other in the neck!

But if they've got these ridges, when they come together, the horns will actually lock together! So you'll have a situation where those two can push and test each other's strengths rather than actually slip and stab each other because, at the end of the day, they didn't want to kill each other!

They just really want to establish who is dominant! So very, very cool to see, and it is an incredible set that we have got! Now, I'm going to probably put them back because I don't want to break them and destroy them in any way whatsoever!

So we're going to put these back for James, but it is a really nice sort of thing to have on the front of a car, I would imagine! I don't know, it certainly is going to evoke some fear! Well, there we go, the hippos agree, and they think that it is very nice and invokes a little bit of fear as well! So that's quite cool!

Now, there are lots of hippos around, including little baby hippos, which is quite nice! I saw a little one just now, just on the backside of its mother! It was kind of sitting there and having a little sort of look around and sleep!

I'm sorry that if I still disturbed it because I didn't want to! When I got out, I was hoping that the little one would stay where it was! But it seems as though it's gone under—there it is! Hello, little one!

Now, I wonder if this is Boo, our little hippo that we saw born a few months ago, or if it is the other one that Noel found the afterbirth for! David's wondering if crocodiles attack nests that aren't their own!

So in terms of the actual nesting structure, I've never seen a crocodile going in and digging out the nest and getting to the eggs and the little ones! But once they are brought back into the water source, then, yes, that can happen!

You do see a situation where other crocodiles will prey upon baby crocs! So as a little baby croc, maybe venture too far, they will get preyed upon by other crocodiles! In this particular case, you'll see that's the larger crocodile; she tends to spend a lot more time quite close to where these little ones have been kept, which is in this corner, same as this baby hippo and its mother!

It's a nice sort of shallow section; there's a little bit of a bank that they can go and lie on! And they're able then to stay nice and safe in this little kind of cove within Chitwa dam! It's actually very shallow here! It looks quite deep in this corner, but it's actually a very shallow section!

And all of the hippos and even the little baby crocs that are hiding out in amongst that fallen-over tree! It sounds like we've got some elephants that are maybe coming this way as well! In fact, I can see them all the way at the back! So they're going to slowly start meandering their way down, which will be very nice indeed!

But as I was saying, it's a nice shallow section so the hippos can lie down there, and the little babies can rest with them! And for the crocodile, there's a little bit of structure that those little babies can get into, and then mom can go and lie up on the bank and keep a watchful eye over them!

So that if any other big crocodiles come along and want to speed off those, at once that she can chase them away! The problem is, is that being a baby crocodile in a system like this means that you've got a number of predators! And so catfish, fish eagles, martial eagles—those things are all going to be predators for those baby crocs!

And so it's a dangerous life! And you'll find that probably 90% of these crocs are not going to survive at the end of the day! A big crocodile female like that, she could probably have laid anywhere between 60 and 90 eggs! And we've only actually seen four crocodiles here!

So she might have lost all the others to monitor lizards or whatever else may have raided the nest! And then as they've come into the water, so things like catfish and fish eagles and various other predators have killed them! So it's a tough life, Archer!

But yes, to answer the original question, is that other crocodiles almost certainly go off to the young of a different crocodile! In saltwater, but while we search, I believe Noel's got something very exciting! Sands!

It's quickly linked across to her! My goodness, everyone! We came up here to do some filming with this injured wild dog because we have the hopes that it's going to get better! And this is the scene that we found!

I don't know what's going to happen; it's an interesting scene! For anyone that's sensitive, maybe don't watch! But this is very, very interesting! I don't know if the hyena is waiting to see if this dog will fight back!

Obviously, the dog moved from where we saw it this morning, where we saw it this morning was probably about 100 meters or 100 yards from where we are now! Again, if you're sensitive, maybe don't watch! But if you want to see nature at its best, this is a very good thing to be watching!

I can't even begin to describe to you how incredibly interesting this is because, even though that hyena is much larger than that wild dog and obviously a lot more fit than this wild dog that we're seeing, it's still displaying submissive behavior with this injured dog! So it can tell... I personally think this hyena can tell that this wild dog is injured!

But the wild dog is growling enough that... I mean, look at that! That is a huge submissive behavior! Do you see there? I mean, it's notched, it's chewing on its paw! Yes, oh my goodness gracious, everyone! This dog does not want to give up at all!

So whatever leg it just chomped on there, obviously, the dog still has feeling in its extremities! And if it's able to move as far as it's moved from this morning, my thoughts were that it wasn't really gonna last for most of the day!

But you'd be amazed; Tristan was telling me about a wild dog that he knew who had both— and could feed! Now, sans, oh! I do think that this hyena is taking advantage of this injured wild dog to see if it can eat it! But I think this wild dog has a lot of gumption left!

You can see it's the back right leg that's injured— but again, it still has all three legs! That's visible, invisible, usable! Excuse me! You can see it's a very hungry dog! Obviously, it's difficult for it to hunt because the way that a dog hunts is very different from a cat! Its claws can't get caught in—you can see that it hurts to get down, but you can also see that it's standing up the way that it is; it's trying to make itself bigger, and the hyena is not taking that lightly at all!

So, though, so the leg the hyena bit earlier is the injured leg! So obviously the... now there's more displacement behavior going on here with a hyena pretending now to ignore the dog a little bit—smelling, checking—but also keeping an eye on any sort of advantage it might be able to get!

But that wild dog, is its... keeping up an eye as best as it can! I mean, that hyena has tens of kilograms—tens of pounds on that wild dog! But do you remember the sighting we had the other day where there was the whole pack of dogs? Where there was the whole pack of dogs and that hyena was following it around?

And they've killed that little baby hyena!

Hello, everyone! Welcome to our action broadcast! I'm going to prelude this by saying that if you were a sensitive... you, tur, you're not gonna want to watch this! If you were a viewer that enjoys strange interactions and unusual interactions in the bush, stay with us!

We have another vehicle that's in the kit— in the camera in the sighting with us! So you will hear it from time to time. I'm Noel; I've got Senzo on camera! There we go! Hi Senzo! We're going to go back now over to this hyena and this wild dog!

Sorry, sorry about that, guys! I just don't want to miss anything with this sighting! This hyena circling this injured wild dog—this wild dog has been injured for several days now! Watch, watch the back right leg; that’s the injured leg! We believe it was injured from a lion!

And we do think that this hyena is trying to gain some sort of advantage to kill and eat this wild dog! Hyenas are one of the few predators that will actively hunt other predators! These sounds are absolutely incredible!

Absolutely incredible! So the effort, for those of you that might just be joining us on this action broadcast, on whatever platform you're on, the African wild dog is not... it's not related to a domesticated dog; it's also known as an African-painted wolf! That hyena is much bigger, much, much bigger than that wild dog!

Oscar, you're curious to know where the pack is! Oscar, the pack has left this dog! Usually, packs are very good at keeping injured ones with, but this one is injured enough that it really can't keep up with that pack! So that pack has left, and they are busy hunting!

They came to visit past this side, excuse me, late last night/early this morning! But unfortunately, it's to the detriment of the pack if they stick in this one area because they won't be able to hunt properly! I've got another vehicle; you'll hear it from time to time!

I'm just busy filming live for all of you on this action broadcast at the moment! I am gonna have to reposition the vehicle a little bit better! Senzo can also see a little bit of a better viewing! So if you just give me a second or two; we're not gonna miss too much action! We will move around for you!

And as I say that, it looks as if the hyena... g-straining dog! You're curious why not say the dog? Everyone, this is wild... these are wild animals! These are not pets! We do not interfere! We just are lucky enough to see wildlife doing what wildlife does!

Human interference in most circumstances of wildlife is not for the better! We have a lot of emotions that go through a scenario like this or any sort of scenario where you have a tough, tough thing happening!